Category: Internet

This is the latest cost comparison chart put together by k.thekuwaiti of local internet providers.

More details [here]

I haven’t had Internet since yesterday morning and it sucked! Last week I upgraded my connection with Qualitynet and I was on 2MB downstram and 512KB upstream set up. It was a very fast connection but it kept getting disconnected.

Well it seems the problem lies with my phone line. According to an engineer who called me up from Qualitynet, my line can handle something around 2.4MB down but only 288KB up so he had to downgrade my account down to 256kb up and 640kb down. It sucks since I got used to the 2MB connection but at least my connection is stable now. Tomorrow they are sending someone over to check the lines in my building and see if there is a way to solve it. I hope there is.

The Kuwait Airport website has been redesigned. It’s pinker and more girlish now! [Link]

Allofmp3.com was finally forced to shut down by the Russian government BUT they right away launched Mp3Sparks.com instead. You could even log in with your allofmp3.com account with no problem..

The new redesigned CNN.com is up and I absolutely love it. I think this is the first time I actually like their redesign. The last two times they redesigned I sent them hate mail but this time I am going to to email them and tell them what a great job they’ve done. Its so pretty! Make sure you check out their video page to, its way better then before. [Link]

update: Wooowww, I just saw their breaking news banner, I love it!

If you are going to copy paste articles from blogs and put them on your website at least have the courtesy to link the original blog properly. Gulfnews had no problem copying and pasting my Faloda post onto their website but when it came to copying and pasting my blogs website address they misspelled it and it ended up as 248.am.com!

Its cool they are into blogs and actually publishing them on their website BUT I would do things differently. For one thing I would make the url’s for the blogs at the very least clickable. That way their readers could just click on the links and be taken to our sites helping us get more traffic.

The second thing is I wouldn’t copy and paste blog posts word for word and publish them like that on the site. Instead I would actually get one of the writers to summarize the articles (like we bloggers do) and then provide links to the original posts in case their readers want to read more. That way they would be supporting bloggers again by sending traffic their way.

The way Gulfnews has things set up now they aren’t sending any traffic to the blogs and instead are just using blogs to add more content to their own website. Thats basically stealing since they are taking articles without permission and then not giving anything back in return.

As I said its cool that they are into blogs but I would take things a step further and actually try to support bloggers by sending traffic to them.

Make sure you check their blogs section at gu.lf.news.com

The new redesigned CNN website is online and can be accessed by going to beta.cnn.com. As long as I can see a lot of stories on the first page I don’t care what they do.

I prefer passing by an actual supermarket to buy my groceries but this could be an attractive solution for people who don’t have the time to physically go and shop.

There are two local online grocery stores that I know of, taw9eel.com and foodkuwait.com. Foodkuwait.com requires you to sign up and login before you can do your shopping which is really stupid. Taw9eel.com on the other hand allows you to browse their products before you decide to sign up or order.

Sumayyah Meehan wrote the following article on online shopping for a local magazine but since the article advertises websites that don’t have ad accounts with the magazine, the story wasn’t published. Since its a good article I asked her if I could publish it here and she was fine with it. Here it is:

‘Cyber Shopping in Kuwait’

As anyone who has tried to order merchandise from online ‘cyber stores’ knows it can be a harrowing experience. It can be a total waste of time in that you surf for a couple of hours tracking down that gorgeous shirt or that must have DVD only to find out that they don’t ship to Kuwait. Or else you find someone who does ship to Kuwait and when your package arrives it is either not what you expected or damaged. No more. Just because you want to buy something online does not mean that you have to cross into another country’s cyber ‘border’ to get it. There are plenty of digital pioneers right here in Kuwait and they are armed with the most cutting edge and interactive online stores around. Are you ready to take shopping in Kuwait to a higher level? Get out your charge card, or even your Knet card, and get ready to do some delectable damage at some of these cyber stores based in Kuwait:

Click N Buy – It takes a team of 9 people to keep up with the orders at Kuwait’s online IT store ‘Click N Buy’ (www.clicknbuy.com.kw). According to Manager Rajesh Chander Singh, “Having an online business is easier in terms of running, but it requires a lot of work in the backend.” Click N Buy is almost exclusively an IT company. They sell different brands of desktop computers, laptops, printers, scanners, iPods and accessories. They have additional items that are not IT based which include contact lenses, mobile phones and water purifier systems. “We have been open for a year and are still a new company,” offers Singh, “we sell exclusively to people living in Kuwait and average about 10,000 hits a month.” In an attempt to keep customers interested Click N Buy plans to offer several more items in the future such as watches, perfumes and handbags. They also plan to extend their ‘cyber-dom’ to include other GCC States. In addition to the cyber store they are taking on a new venture which is a website that will help users create their own sleek website in 10 minutes flat! So, keep an eye out for www.w3monster.com. Click N Buy accepts major credit cards as well as Knet. And they boast the lowest prices for IT products and services anywhere in Kuwait. Delivery is free for orders with a minimum balance of 10KD. And you can expect to receive your purchase within 24 hours of ordering! They also accept trade-ins for old laptops and offer IT rentals. And as if it could get any better there is even a discussion forum for customers!

Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were recently added to PayPal! [Link]

Thanks Yousef

This is a pretty cool site I just found via digg. The website actually reacts with the sounds you make. Since I have a built in mic in my MacBook I was whistling and talking into my computer trying to see how the site would behave. Its fun to play around with for like a minute. [Link]

I just found out about Justin.tv and it seems cool so far. Justin is a guy who wears a camera in his hat 24 hours a day 7 days a week and broadcasts everything he sees onto his website as a live video stream. So far he has been live for over 23 days, its like a real life Truman Show. [Link]

A user in the forum posted a link to this video of a girl belly dancing at the public beach near the Kuwait Towers. Nothing too controversial but still, its always fun to watch. [Video]

Thanks bu50

There is a new blog called Kuwait Health in which the writers are trying to promote health care reform in Kuwait. Anyone who has experienced public hospitals in Kuwait will appreciate what these guys are trying to do. You can check out their blog by visiting q8health.org

Here is a site with links to all the local newspapers in Kuwait (Arabic and English) and also some magazines. [Link]

The Daily Star is not listed there probably because their site just recently came online.